jwinslow;841484; said:
So where is the suspension for Bowen/Duncan?Do you have a link? That stipulation sounds very interesting.
Bowen/Duncan they claim was not an altercation. The following is where I got my info. It is a very gray area.
http://myespn.go.com/profile/truehoop?archiveId=24
Forget the "Amare Stoudemire was going to check in" defense that had no chance after the TNT crew mocked it so soundly post-game. The Suns have a new, and to my mind better, rationale for why Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw should not be suspended: there was no fight.
The rule about leaving the bench applies only if there is not an altercation. Who decides whether or not it's an altercation? My quick examination of
the rule book reveals no answers -- although I welcome your research and input.
I did notice one handy fact, though: lucky for the Suns, as far as I know no one was assessed what the rule book considers a "fighting foul." If Raja Bell's technical had met that description, he would have been ejected -- and there would have been a clear-cut case that there had been an altercation.
Doug Haller of the Arizona Republic reports:
Nash tried to downplay Stoudemire and Diaw's involvement. "First of all, that would be terrible if that silly play at the end of the game, when the game is really over, causes a detriment to the rest of the series," he said. "Second of all, there wasn't a fight. It wasn't like guys left the bench to enter the fight. So I don't see what, in the big picture, the deal is. If you want to be technical about it, guys are on the court the whole game, cheering at one time or another, and they're over the (end) line. If someone's not throwing a punch or someone doesn't run out there to enter a fight, I think it's a moot point."
ESPN's Marc Stein points out that there is one case --
under very different circumstances -- when players left the bench and were not suspended. So there have been exceptions. Stein also writes, in
today's Daily Dime:
Stoudemire and Diaw never made it near the scrum, as Suns assistant coaches scrambled them back to the bench. Nor did Monday's incident ever become an actual brawl, with referees Joe DeRosa and Javie getting between Nash and Horry before it could escalate. There is also a growing perception, most of all, that Bowen was shown a good deal of leniency by the league office after being accused of intentionally kicking a dunking Stoudemire in Game 2 and kneeing Nash in Game 3 ... and going unpunished in both cases. Doesn't the league have to balance that against the notion of "staying consistent" on leaving-the-bench suspensions?